Friday, July 24, 2015

Happy Birthday with added deception

"In 1748, he had a spiritual conversion on a journey back to England. He almost drowned in a terrible storm, but he prayed to God, and the ship did not sink. After that, he stopped gambling and drinking, and he married a girl he had loved for many years. Newton was ordained as a minister. He gave up the slave trade entirely, and later in his life he became an outspoken abolitionist"

Notice how there's only one date, that of the miraculous prayer and intervention that set Newton on his new life. Or did it? Let us add 3 more dates:

1748 as noted.

1754 while still captaining a slave ship has stroke; stops sailing but continues investing in slaves.

From 1757 to 1764 studies for the ministry and becomes first a lay and then ordained minister.

1788 publishes his pamphlet and becomes outspoken abolitionist.

In 1748 Newton prays to God during a storm and his ship doesn't sink. He reforms his life. But he continues to captain a slave ship and to trade in slaves. Even after he has a stroke that prevents him from being aboard a ship, he continues to invest in the slave trade. Clearly, slavery is not one of the things he thinks God wants him to give up.

This is important because the dateless biography strongly implies an immediate cause-and-effect sequence that simply isn't there. Slavery and Christianity went hand in hand for centuries in England and the US, and decades in Newton's life. "Amazing Grace" was not about seeing the light concerning slavery; he "stopped gambling and drinking " but he did not stop carrying, or trading in, slaves. Newton did do yeoman's work in the cause but he didn't start until 40 years after his conversion event. Implying otherwise is deeply dishonest.

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About Me

I teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I've recently started birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community... One more thing: this blog and the opinions on it are mine, and don't represent any institution or employer... probably very much so don't.

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You cannot leave. You cannot drop the armor now. Why? Because you are needed, more than ever. You are mandatory to keep the energy flowing, the karmic vibrator buzzing, to keep the progressive and lucid half of the nation breathing and healthy and awake and ever reaching out to the half that's wallowing in fear and violence and homophobia and sexual dread, hoping to find harmony instead of cacophony, common ground instead of civil war, some sort of a shared love of a country so messy and internationally disrespected and openly confused its own president can't even speak the language.

After all, you don't hand over all your children the first time the flying monkeys bang on your door...

It's far from over. The tunnel is just a little darker -- and longer -- than we imagined.
Mark Morford